List of Illustrations
Introduction
Shakespeare the Poet
Venus and Adonis
Publication and Date of Composition
Dedication
Literary Milieu
Lucrece
Publication and Date of Composition
The Argument, Sources, and Politics
Reading (in) Lucrece
Rape and Consent
The Passionate Pilgrim
‘Let the bird of loudest lay’
Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Publication and Circulation
Dedication
Date and Sequence
Sources
Reading the Sonnets
A Lover’s Complaint
Date and Attribution
The Poem and its Context
Poems Attributed to Shakespeare in the Seventeenth Century
‘Shall I die?’
A Funeral Elegy
Editorial Procedures
Abbreviations and References
VENUS AND ADONIS
LUCRECE
THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM
‘ LET THE BIRD OF LOUDEST LAY’
SHAKESPEARE’ S SONNETS
A LOVER’ S COMPLAINT
appendix
Poems Attributed to Shakespeare in the
Seventeenth Century
Index
Index of First Lines